The Sun. — London, England, 1818-04-09 00:00:00

PARLIA ME NT. MOUSE OF LORDS, I VEDNE3DAY, APRIL 3. Petitions against the additional Duty on Leather were presented by the' Duke of Nottnaumaen- LAND, trnin Durham ; by the Earl of SrENcsa, from Southwark (which his Lordship stated he had bees urnotie to :.resent. sooner, in conse quence of his ab'ence tt,qn town at the Quartet Sessions) ; anti by the Marquis of STAFFORD, (the name of the place not heard).—Ordered to lie npou the table. The Irish Corks 'Duty Bill, the Four-wheel Carriage Duty Bin, and soine Pi irate Bills, were Inought up from the !lodic of Commons by Mr, BRoGneN, JAMRS URAELIM, and other ?Jew hers, and n-ad a ESt time. Lee's Divorce Bill Was also retui tied agreed - to. Oo the motion of the Earl of LAUDERDALE, Ac counts acre ordered of 11,c net produce of the Consolidated Fund, the Revenue, ar Taxes, &C. The Longitude and Northern Passage Bill pas's ed through a CAtuntittee, and was reported with out trrnendruetit MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. The Earl of Livyupoot, gave t , otif..e fur to morrow. of mov;u4 the usual Athlret , ses of Con. grai L 111.6011 ppm! the Martiage of her Royal . High. ness the Puinces's Elizabeth with the Heredi. tury Prince of Hesse Homburg. SUPPLY OF WATER IN THE METROPOLIc. The Earl of SIL\ FTEsBU ay presented a Petition front the Grand Junction Wate-r- works Company, and stated that it was not his intention to bring forward, at present, any motion upon . the sub ject, but to wait till the Bill, which it appealed by the votes was, now in the House of Commons, came up to their Lorthhips. The Petition was read, stating, that the Com pany had erected machinery, and made arrange ments for the abiardant supply of certain parts of ele metropolis with water, at an expenee of 300,000/..; that the subscribers, although seven years had , elapsed since the Company was esta blished, had yet received no dividend upon their shares, the whole of the water rents being neces sarily swallowed up in the charges for machinery, tke..; that they were desirous of serving water at n rate merely sufficient to pay them a moderate re turn for their capital employed ; and praying that the House would appoint a Committee.. to ifirestigate the subj::et.—Ordered to lie on the , table. The Earl of LAUDPRDALE adverted. to what he Lad said on a former evening, respectitig_these Companies dividing the town between them, .tied thereby establi,hing a monopoly in each disttiet ; and obscrved, that air next. day he received a letter front a'Mr. Coe. Secretary to the Grand Junc tion Company, referriug to what had passed in the Howe, and expre!;sieg his stoprise at the ignorance that prevailed .upon the subject. He deemed it requisite to inform Mr. Cot, that he (Lord Lauderdale) did not think it altogether a correct way of referring to proceedings in Parlia ment ; but, as he was not one of those who would be disposed to bring-Mr. Coe to the Bar for such a letter, he entered into some conversation with hint, in e hich Mr. Coe endeavoured to prove every thing in favour of the Company ; but by which be (Lord Lauderdale) was completely con vinced that a monopoly was actually established, anti that, too, of an article of the first necessity. It was impossible for any one to deny, that to al low such - a monopoly without some • regulation 'vas pregnaet with the most mischievous conse quences to the public. To.fix a maximum was very diffienit, and required .much 'deliberation; and whilst two Companies were serving water in the sante district, it was not necessary, as the competition ensured a supply at the hiwest rate ; but' now, when this competition was at an end, and amonopoly substituted, it became the duty of the Legislature to fix the rate at which water should be screed, in order to prevent the poss. trt imposition upon the . public. _lt was not 24 hours atter lie received Mr. Coe's letter, that he received a letter from a poor housekeeper, stating, that be had formerly been served by the New River . Company at 28s. per annum; another -Company offerer' to serve him at 245. Ile went to the New River Company, and was willing they :should coutinue to serve him . , if they would do it at 245. The rate was 'educed, and now when the competition was done away. the rate was again raised to 28s. This served strongly to sleety the effects of the monopoly. -It happened also that the Duke of Bedford's tenants were all now served by one Company, ant! there were a great number of complaints from them, iu consequence of their being subjected, whither they would or no, to such a monopoly. The conduct of these Water Companies formed one of the stroneest Cases that veer called for the interference of Parliament, and it was materially aggravated by the circumstance that not above two years ago an application from two of . the Companies, to be-allowed J o colt/ bi ne their interests, was rejected by the House of Com mons, and yet, notwithstanding this, they !lad since, by private agreement, carried into effect that monopoly svhich the Hoes" of Commons lead decided should not be allowed to exist. He trusted that the Bill now in the Flonse of Com mons would pass ; but if it abroad not come up to that House, he trusted their Lordships would trot separate without adopting some measure upon the subject, with the view of remedying an evil which was certainly of an enormous magnitude. Adjourned till to-morrow (this day). 110USI OF COMMONS. Seq-eant ON SLOW presented several Petitions front": 'll n floAsellers and Engravers, praying relief from the op erat i on o f t h e Copy right Act.—ltead, and ordered t o • lie on the Able. IkAcicEnuNt - presented n Petition from cer "Jetiillouseholders ag.iinst. 8 ChttlSC in the intended P pm- Laws Act. It teas understood to pray for. an,eZenirtion of all houses !roar the Poor's Rates that were on:ler a certain rent. General TI-10iniTi)N - expTessed his 'opinion t h at this subject required the utmost cousideration, us it Vvou ld be the greatest hardship upon puur tenants Subjcct such as paid less than 201. rent to the payment of a n y P oor ' s 'Rates. Several Private . Bills were forwarded through their respective Stages. Mr. J. V. LITTLETON presented two Petitions from Staffordshire, against the Bill for regulating the hours of labour in Manufactories.—Read, and ordered to lie on the table. Some Petitions of a public nature were present ed, which were thought to pray for relief from the Shop Window Tax; but the rapid and inaudible manner in which they were read wade it impos sible to collect their purport. 13EDFORD LEVEL. 111 r. Forme, on moving the consideration of the Report of the Eau Blink Drainage Bill, entered into a long detail of the different Acts for drain ing the Bedford Levrl, in order to shear that the piesent 13ill did not affect-the navigation, but only went to enable the Commissioners to raise -a fund to carry on the work. Lord' NVALPOLE hoped the House would-enforee the Standing Order respecting this report, as many of the clauses were entirely new. Some of the former Acts alluded to by the Right Hon. Gentleman were decidedly Navigatio❑ Bills, and fiddi im a i powers were given to the Commission ers to effect their purpose. The present Bill must be considered as emanating from the two last Bills that had been passed, and ought rather to be con sidered as a new one. Mr. YoßKE.again pressed the propriety of im mediately proceeding with the measure, and en !ere(' into many farther explanations, to show that the Bill was not a new treasure. He traced the operations of the different Bills since 1791. — The principal object of the measure was to obtain a deep channel for the water at Lynn. In the course of his observations he showed that one of the Bills bad been attended with an whence of 30,0001. and it was now necessary to come to Parliament to enable an extension of the opera tion of the four preceding Bills. The majority of the landholders of .there parts were decidedly in favour of drainage, thong's it was not to be ex, pected but some few would be against it. The Bil! bad not been precipitated in any of its stagcs, and those who had now petitioned against it might have done so before. The object was to carry into effect four different Acts of Parliament, in the operation of w hich the interests of the whole country were concerned. The question being; then put, that the Report be now farther conshtered, Sir M. FOULKES noted, as an_amendment,,that instead of the word " now," " on Monday next," be inserted, which was negatived. The Report seas then further considered ; some new clauses were introduced, and th e Bill was ordered to be read a third time to-morrow. Lord ALTHORPE presented a petition from Au thors and Composers of Books, praying relief from the effects of the Copyright Act.—Read, and ordered to lie on the table. Mr. SMITH wished it to be borne in mind on the discussion, that the average number of copies printed of any vvork was 750 ; that many works did not sell ; and that _it was only in about one in twenty cases where copies were claimed by the Universities. MEmEBR mentioned, as an instance of the hardship on Authors, that eleven copies of the work of Mr. Dyson, which when completed would sell for sixty guineas, and of which only a limited number would be printed, would, if given to the Universities, deprive him of GOO/. Mr. B. WILBaAHAm presented a petition front Mr. John. Button, of Tavistock-place, on the same subject, stating the enormous loss be must sustain by giving- up eleven copes of his expen sive works of engravings. --Recd, and ordered to lie on the table. PRIVATE BANKERS. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER sail, he wished to give notice of a subject of 'considerable importance, to which he should to-morrow call the attention of the House. His reason for mak- ink; the communication so early was, that as the subject involved - so - many interests, be wished %then he stated his plan that it might receive the fullest consideration. He should now merely give notice, that he should move to-morrow for a Cdm wittee to consider the various Acts relative to l'tivate Bankers. Mr. GRENFELL much veished to know from the Right, lion. Gentleman whether there was any thing in his plan that would have a tendency to correct the evil of, and protect the public from, the consequences so deeply felt from the number of forged notes, or to give them some security on a subject of such importance both to their inte rests and the morals of society •? The CHANCELLOR of (lie EXCHEQUER said his plan went only to the regulation of the issues of Private Bankers, and did not relate to the Bank of England. Ile was sure that nobody could be more anxious than the Bank themselves to prevent the alarming evil in question. Air. TIERNEY thought it very desirable that the Right lion. Gentleman should give some general outline of his plan, that Gentlemen might have some information of what he intended to propose. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER was will ing to give the Right Hon. Gentleman and the [louse every information in a few words ; at least, he would state enougb to satisfy them, in some degree. The plan he should propose related to the time to which Bankers have a right to issue Notes tinder.s/. and which, it was known could not continue after the sth July ilex!, when the Bank was expected to resume cash payments.— He meant to propose, that after that day no such Notes should be issued by any private Banker, ex cept on the depositing of some Government seen riv. But there would he nothing to prevent the issue of Notes under that value, as soon as proper regulations could be made. Mr. BROUGHAM brought tip the • Bill for' the Education of the Poor in England and Wales, which being read a 'fiat time, the Hon. Gentle man made a - few observ.a:inns on the manner in which the'resent Bill was drawn up, in order to obviate the objections of time former onc.—The Bill was then ordt,red to be read a scconc! (jute on Mopcht- J• ROYAL MARRIAGE. Lard CASTLEREAGH gave notice, that to-mor ow be ;:houltl move an Address on the marriage of the Prince of Hesse tioniherg to the Piincess Elizabeth. BREACH OF PRIVILEGE. Lord A. HAMILTON said he rose under 'consi derable embarrassment, in order to give notice of a motion which he intended to make, which in= yoked a breach of the privileges. He knew it was . unusual to make any allnsion to the conduct of any individual who' had a seat in another Assem bly ; but it appeared to hint, that when he'sliould make his statement, the House would feel it ne cessary to take some steps. His intention was to submit the matter to the House on Friday next ; and he thought that- he ought not to state the par ticulars of his motion till lie brought the subject forward. He wished now merely to know, whe ther, as amatter of _privilege, his motion would take precedenck: on that day of all other business? But if any Hon. Member thought he ought now to be more explicit on the. subject, lie should adopt some other method - ; but if not, he should now give notice that he would bring it forward as the first thing on the meeting of the House on Friday. Lord CASTLEREAGH said, thHt as a question of privilege, it was quite in - the Noble Lord's'power to wake bis motion take precedence of every thing else. Lord A. HAMILTON replied, tha►t if the.llouse took the 9:t we view of the subject as he did they Would find it necessary to take the proceeding into their own hands. The notice was then entered - for Friday. Mr. BENNET moved for accounts of all Writs lodged (hiring the last four years in the Sheriff's Office at Dublin, the number of Special J uries in that period, and their expellees; the Free receiv ed by each Sub-Sheriff f►ir the City of Dublin, and the Table Of Fees demanded it► the Sheriff's Office for the same period:—Ordered. Sir J. LUBBOCK. presented a Petition from an Author against the Copyright Act, which - stated that his loss by the ele.'et► copies of one work Ivould be 1441.--4tead, and ordered to lie on the table. PETITION FROM ROYTON. Lord STANLEY wished to call the attention of the House to a Petition which he held in his hand. The House must be aware that a number-of Pe titions are frequently put into the bands of:Mem bers, with no part of which they could agree. This petition was signed, on behalf of it...meeting held at Royton, in Lancashire, by the Chairman, and lit had been requested Co present Now amongst those petitions which 'Members often had to present, though the sentiments whieltruany of them contained were contrary to their own opi ni-n„ yet they might come SQ near to the line of propriety as tO leave it difficult to decide whether they ought to be presented or nor. He had his doubts on this petition, but he always felt a wish to leave the tight of petitioning unfettered. He thought it, however, due to himself, to call the attention of the House particadarly to the sobject, before he did any thing :it all. But thee seemed to him hardly any citing in the prayer of it that 'could be considered improper. Its to the language, lie wished to leave it to tire opinion of the house. The Petition was then brought up end read. It began by stating, that self preservation being the first law of names, the Petitioners, several thousands in nomber, were forced to complain of their situation to Parliament, in order to bring before their eves the suffering condition of *theta-' selves and the people of this countly : That the peti:ioners were trorking weavers, who could only earn 7s. a week ; That this was not sufficient for common food for the support of life, arid that they therefore cot-tid neither buy clothes nor pay rent : Thirt they were bringing children into the World, whom they could not keep from starving;. though .they were convinced that God never madeluan to starve : That for persons in their sittiatiiin aprison had no terrors ; and as a proof _that distress ne cessatily led to the commission of crimes4t heir Quarter SessiOns, used lo only three or lour days,. now frequently_ . continue twelve or fourteen : That general beggary pro duced indolence and slavery, and could neither make us happy at home or respectable abroad. It then went on to complain of the taxes, and at tributed to the House the raising pt rents by enacting the Corn Laws, thus from time th' time compensating the rich by injuring the poor:Such conduct, it added, destroyed all traces' of- that liberality which formerly distingnislred the coun try :• That the petitioners viewed witl4 indl gfiat i on . and sorrow the conduct of ,Ministers, in impri soning honest Reformers on charges.. of treason, when no treason had been coruniitted That the. selfish principlesolthe House was the main cause of their calamities ; and they hoped the Ilouse would analyse its political principles. The prayer of the Petition was, that the Corn Dill might be repealed,- its order that rents might fall, and that, by the exercise of liberal principles, the_ social comforts of the people might be restored. Mr. BANKES said, it would be improper for th e House to extend its indulgence to a Petition ex. pressing general opinions of this h The Stand ing Order of the House forbade the re,aition of such a Petition. LYTTLETON thought the Petition highly disrespectful, It was not even addressed in the usual form, to the Honourable the House of Com mons of the United Kingdom. - Mr. WYNNE thought nobody entrldio,oti . .at Cie Petition,' and see the House acenseti , r4 it oi sLI - principles, without being convinced that it was sent for the purpose of indignity. itir. LA M ETON conic! not agree with the view the Hon. gentleman bad taken of.l i be F,nbieet. lle saw nothing at all offensive iir.the- words of the petition, nor any thing derOgatorY to tte dig nity of the• House to hear. There was nothing offered that could be construed as insulting to the House, and it• objections to its reception were persisted in, be woutd.call for 'a.divi,ion. The CH , NcELLO3 of the EXCHFCLUER thought the petitiort very improper, ioasinuclt a it accilsed the flotise of ..being i;tfll►enced by tellish prinei phs: Mr. TiEntinT , contended :hat the Petiqem only meant to say, that the House ha!! actC;don.Ratrow It ought not to- he expected that the Pe titioners were to convey their Avords (pile In a correct sense, or it tnighf as troll-be said at °nen that men shall not petition on the subject of Par liamentary Reform. It there Lad hen any thin views. • • n' in:recent the Peti‘tiOn, or any apparent ncte tion of the Petitioners to insult the House, b e should have opp o s e d it ; bait there was only t i k e unhappy %void "selfish," which had given olfe lice to some Gentlemen, and which, in opioi art ' had no offensive weaning. The flouse then divided on the question th at the Petition be received — Ayes l4 Noes Majority ...,... —23 - Mr. Goncn presented Petition from . the Butchers of the County of Suffolk, against t. Horse I)uty. The Cut,NcGLLOit of the EXCHCQUER did " 4 mean to object to the Petition. lie said a lew words, whi:l could nut be distinctly hear'h u respecting th e differece to be inade betwe e n horses used for agric u l tura l purposes an d o " er trades. Lord AurnottrE was of opinion, that if even horse that ne v e r had' a saddle o n hi s backore e 1 , 1 ; a year was to he c h arge d w i t h t h e h orse duty/ 'would tend to diminish' the breed of horses. The Petition was received. Lord DREIUMRST presented a petition siv,,ne (lll the Attornies and Solicitors of the City and Cool o;' Worcester, prayin g t h a t p ersons w h o we re 11° duly qualified might he prevented from interfel with tht!Conveyancing p ar t o f t h e profession,wh ic _ WAS the most lucrative and extensive line Of - bd :i siness to c ount r y a tt orn i es . Lordship Parliament, would t a k e t hi s ev il i nto their eOtol",e; ration, and repeal so much of the Statute of t. 44th and 55th of his present Majesty as bore tir'; the present case. The petition was most i‘te re spectably signed.—Read, and put u p on the t au of the House. The New Churches' Bill 'vent through a C afil : tnittee, the report of whi c h was rece i ve d , awl °-,11 dered to be t a k en into furtherconsideratia" Monday sennight, and the Bill to be printed. ' The American Trade Bill was reed a third time and passed; The (louse went into a Committee on the Gl' 6s , Acts, in which certain resolutions for co ntinoil theeNisting duties w ere agree d to. The repo rt was orderell to be received to-morrow. Mr: LUSaINGTON broupht in a 11 - ,11 for reP" s ing certain . duties and Cus t oms , and dwell'''. others in lieu of them. Lord EA CEI. LES „ Q 11 thiS . Occasion, thin liouse.lwas, thought it right to call their a ttent;J" to, the operation of a measure which had bee a bronglit forwa r d t wo ye'as s ago. The Act f. which - he referred was intended,' by imposi"g t i, heavy duty on the importation of rape-seed , I , e.ncourage the growth of it at borne. Th is t e b e feet, however, h a d not b een pro d uce d , as graiving of rape-reed was, in many instan ce prohibited by covenant introdu ce d i nto leas" that expr"ess pprpose. The consequenceZnagg the price of rape-seed had ri s e n f rom 35 sh""'" to 65 shilli ngs or 70 s hilli ngs per ton. otl ' tt port of the country where he resided, ror": e , e ,, E dust was the manure used, and it the hind could not be brought into cultivation'A considcrable burth en was i n co nst'r}uen ce thrown on the ngric u l lur i st w h o w ie d • ing to not less than 101. per last-, throut:h the °P e t : ration of the Bill t o w ni e l l he had c a ll e d (licit . It:1)0w). Mr. LustuNGToN 'was unrterstood to say a be ! . ter opportunity for tot-jug this subject' into con'}, ()oration would oiler before th e B i ll now bruag li in could pass through the [louse. The Bill was read a first, and ordered to read a . seccnd time b4l Tuesday se'nnight• FORCEBY. of The General TnoaNToN called the attention I-lonse to the great- increase of FoNery of l3a r r a l s QE- England Notes, . the consequence "' of wh i "„' n 'v y .a general .. distrust of that species of c urr i„ c i i .‘ Tradesmen often refnsednotes in their uncer":' - i i : / :' arnd thus lost eti.t 'on); or took bad ones, 10 " lost their property. :Elie number t,f critnin (d '," t o so increased, that the B an k b a d been oblig e " comproutise the matter, and take co nvictio" s rip . minor charges,' to av o id t h e f requency o f trans.. It was shocking that this state of td o ~sh9uldcontitine, with ou t an attempt - at a rem ` by ,increasing . the obstacles in the ForgericS: . 16 1797 a N ote was s t,hoo t s - oc 10 the, Bank , by Mr. Tilloch, which the g i „, e d _engravers of th a t day (Bartolozzi, Heath' A - v. _others), declared th at t h ey cou ld not i m i ta te' i ' e l T erry, the engr aver o f t h e B an k , h a d 'what be conceived, to be an imitation of it, these engravers had declared th at it was not cot e rect. A reason should be given why this or 8911 c 1- e other plan had not been adopted. The exP eri ec had been mentioned, but no probable e%l' e f F i ' could overhahnce the injury dooe to moral"' -- ( e d sides the injury to property_ Th e ex peo v c, e , w iii prosecutions, when it was exhibite''' ifiew that this species of ecoimmy tva' plied. Ile hoped, therefore, a , ..;ntumittee ~ co to be moved fear by some or the Bank Firect°;/;i4 know whether every thing had been done t y, was' possit;le ; it - they did not perform (hi' ( n L1 ,41, he hory..d the Chancellor o f the Exclietitler /sc i a l bt especially after the notice he had , iven that b r ' 4l o The motion which he ma d e wa s only to down accounts b e f ore t h e H ouse to t he la te ° , period. He moved for "an account of th e ri t tl Bank oh .England Notes, Pr eserl ' e c a toe payment to the Itank of En g l an d, and ret"'G.l; On the ground of their being forged, for th e " yeals-,- trout Cac - IJ CS t period to which the count, can' be made up," t Air.GRENFELt. said, his Hominra! le and Gear s —t i r'rienCl, the Member for Naitn (Sir Ma c " tno lost)) had given notice o f st.Vetal m ot i ons on 0 )to 'subjett,.in which this caution w's included. o f ...General T N TON then cons en ted to wit bar9 Iris notion.—Adjourned. 13er Yesterday, ,at. St. An Elatlifriari, Mr. Benjamin ,ht er :31t.y, Bo!t-eon,t, Fl ee t s t ree t, t o only da u b and of :klr. Poo!;, of Mat,,ion-house-stroet. . . DIED. , On the s2Blll u!*.. at her mother's h o use, Edinburgh, MOE Eupherria Young, wife of John Young, Esq. young e '',' Beflwooi, and (I,,;hter of the lute Nei: Macvicar, Esqv e st • On Strrkav th,.! .5 I 1 I inst. at tarrhemi, in tn(f Iliditi . rs of the Giunty of "fad>, Waintn:,n;E°C . the 7.sth! - ear of Ibis age. LONDON: I!rioteil by 3. B. C.A.IISTA MS, No. 291 A• Ormorid-street, Qut!orr-sciiiare; and puhll3l;vd ;;ul4 SCRIPPS, of No. 7, South Moiton-stittl, ;it I' 7l Office, No. Strand ;- where Adrel;i , eincorS: u .l " - Lctl - 5, (puit-krthl) utast I.Pe itthi; ussed.